3 Simple Mind Set Tips About Sending Your Newsletter Consistently

Today, we devote this space to the business newsletter.

Chances are, if you’ve not been under a rock, you’ve been exposed to the advice that you need to send a newsletter to potential clients, as a way to get them to “know, like and trust you.”

That’s true.

But the catch is, getting a newsletter out every week takes a commitment that can be hard to uphold, week in and week out.

As a woman who has written a newsletter every week for the past 4 and a half years, here’s what I have to say on the matter:

  1. Marry your list. I had 90 people on my list when I first started out. Many of them were my relatives. Didn’t matter. Make a decision that you are going to send out your newsletter, come hell or high water. And then take that commitment seriously. Need to get some leverage on yourself to actually make this happen? Consider this: every week that you skip a newsletter you cheating on your list. You have an integrity problem. Handle it.
  2. Sometimes, you will write turds. Doesn’t matter. Not all of your articles can be smart, well researched, and perfect. The goal isn’t to be perfect – it’s to get in the habit of sharing good ideas with people who might buy from you down the road. Take the pressure off yourself to write the “perfect thing” – that is actually keeping you from being of service to the people who would have really benefitted from your imperfect suggestion.
  3. You earn the right to ask for business. I am bone tired of people telling me that they will buy ads on Facebook or buy a cold list to sell their hokey worthless info product to. There is an illusion that people will buy your crappy if you hire someone like me to write for you. I wouldn’t touch that project with a 15 foot pole – and here’s why – when you HAVE A RELATIONSHIP with people, you don’t have to make them feel bad to get them or prey on their insecurities to buy from you. Want people to buy from your emails? Then SHOW UP EVERY WEEK and win their business.

Love this article — and want to a newsletter that builds and strengthens your relationship with the human beings on your mailing list? I’m teaching a 9-week copywriting course called Writing That Sells to show you how to do it. Read more here.

Mighty thanks to Seattle Municipal Archives flickr photostream for the power of print.

Stella Orange is a copywriter who helps people put their work into words. For eight years, she wrote email campaigns that resulted in more than a million dollars in sales for her clients. In that time, Stella also taught popular marketing writing workshops to business owners on both sides of the Atlantic -- and a few in Australia and New Zealand. In 2017, Stella cofounded a creative and consulting shop offering a complete and slightly unorthodox line of business advising and marketing services. She continues to write copy and advise clients on customer delight, how to resonate with more sophisticated, discerning clientele in your marketing, and just who, exactly, your ideal clients are. Stella is the founder of Show Up And Write, a weekly writing group and writes a letter every two weeks or so (here’s the sign-up). She lives with the Philosopher and their two kiddos in Buffalo, New York, a fifteen-minute bike ride to the Canadian border.

4 Comments


  1. Jo Ilfeld

    Thanks for saying the thing about turds. That actually resonated with me the most. Sometimes I get all mired in making it great. I like that permission!

  2. Stella

    Jo,
    Wonderful.

    Love,
    Stella

  3. Jan

    So if you don’t buy traffic say from Facebook then it takes a long time to get people on your list. I totally agree with the “relationship rules” attitude that you are talking about. So why not have the best of both worlds? Buy traffic until you get all of your marketing ducks in a row and create relationship at the same time. I am not saying to depend on Facebook ads to build your business but it is a way to get started. And I know personally several people who are making lots of connections with Facebook and creating relationship and also and having 5 and 6 figure months. It does have a big learning curve and isn’t for everybody for sure. Anyway my 2 cents for what it is worth. And I am committing to getting my newsletter out regularly too. Thanks Stella you are the bomb!!!

  4. Amber

    This is spot on!

    I’ll admit, I have a rough time sending out newsletters, and lately due to burn out I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like, but I am with you businesses upping their game in terms of the stuff that they sell.

    It was one of the un-fun parts about being a freelance writer for me: people and their crappy projects. Now I have gotten to a point where if I don’t believe in it, I don’t work on it.

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